In the best of times, people may seek a Cosmetic Dentist to make their smile look better. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the need behind a dental visit is far more basic – and far more painful, like when a tooth has been damaged or has suddenly started to hurt too much to ignore it. That’s when it’s time for an Emergency Dentist in Woodbury Heights.
Emergency dental work often comes shortly after a cavity has gotten big enough to reach the tooth root. Once the root is penetrated, bacteria from the cavity are able to enter it. When they do, an infection starts. In almost all cases, this infection will quickly cause excruciating pain. The pain can be so bad that the patient would be eager to have the tooth pulled out just to make it stop.
While an extraction will stop the pain in a jiffy, it can also cause plenty of follow-on problems. The teeth next to the missing one will usually shift, as will the ones directly above or below the hole. This will mess up the way those remaining teeth come together, which causes more pains and problems as time goes on. For these reasons, your Emergency Dental Services Woodbury Heights will try to get you to choose another way of stopping your pain so that the tooth can be preserved. The most common tooth-preserving method is root canal therapy. In this procedure, the tooth’s roots are removed and replaced with an inert substance. A temporary crown is then immediately placed to keep the newly-cleaned root canals sterile while you wait a couple of weeks for a permanent crown to be made.
Sometimes, infections go on long enough to become abscesses. An abscess will almost always be excruciating, and they can also cause the affected area of the mouth to swell up to cartoon-like proportions. When an abscess seems to happen suddenly, without previous tooth pain, what has happened is that the root of the tooth died before it could transmit pain signals. In these cases, the original cause of the infection must be treated and the abscess has to be cleaned out. You’ll also get antibiotics prescribed by your Emergency Dentist in Woodbury Heights so the infection can’t spread. Soon, the treated area of the mouth will heal and you’ll be back to normal.
